Robbing
Colonies steal each other’s honey
6 minute read
Basic Assessment: Aware of the danger of robbing and how to prevent it.
If bees discover a source of honey (like when you are inspecting a hive, two boxes are not properly locked together or a frame of stores is exposed during an inspection), they return to their hive and inform the colony there is a fast food fest nearby. Robbers may raid dead or dying colonies and transmit disease.
There are four patterns of robbing
Entrance only is the commonest pattern: Robbers assume a zigzag flight pattern in front of the hive, and there is fighting and busyness at the entrance. The robbers approach slowly and, after a little while, land at the entrance; if they are accosted by a guard they fly back to facing the entrance, and resume their flight pattern. In a large colony, it can be difficult to differentiate from orientation flights.
Cracks in the hive structure. In their eagerness the bees form little groups trying to get in somewhere where no gap exists.
Entrance and cracks
Silent robbing — it is difficult to spot an occasional bee whose flight trajectory is from another hive or apiary. It is rare.
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Robbing through a gap between clearer board and hive body.
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Wasps trying to enter the hive through a gap at the edge of the entrance.
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Trying to get through a gap between the boxes despite it being covered with tape.
The entrance is reduced to one bee space.
When the new entrance is put in an old style floor it leaves a gap at each end.
The new style entrance is easy to defend. The sliders at each side can reduce it.
Routinely check elderly wooden and poly hives for cracks greater than 4 mm that might admit a bee or wasp. Poly boxes that are assembled without using glue frequently develop cracks.
In a dearth, robbing is easily precipitated, and if your hives are close together, inspecting them can become almost impossible. Under these circumstances, be swift and carefully cover anything that might attract nosey bees. If you must inspect them properly, close all the entrance early in the morning or in the evening. The foragers are too obsessed with getting in to their hive to cause problems.
Management of robbing through the front entrance
The only action required is to reduce the entrance of the robbed colony to one bee space which causes an alarming log jam. It has never caused my bees a problem. Let the bees out in the evening, and the next day they have forgotten all about robbing.
Spray the robbers using your water hose; they assume it is raining, and go home.
Smear Vapour Rub around the entrance. It confuses robbers, not the colony members.
If the hives are light, you could, if you fancy hard work, swap the position of the robbed and the robbing hive.
Move a robbed colony to another site. This makes sense for little nucs, but they may be robbed out before it is safe to move them in the evening. So long as nucs are in the shade with screened floors, close their entrances.
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